Portland State Vanguard Volume 75 Issue 29

VOLUME 75 • ISSUE 29 • MARCH 9, 2021

DEFINING ACADEMIC FREEDOM AT PSU

P. 8–9

NEWS

So long, D2L P. 5

ARTS & CULTURE

Portland restaurants vs. delivery apps P. 12

OPINION

PSU and its values P. 14

CONTENTS

COVER BY SAM GARCIA

NEWS COVID-19 UPDATE

P. 3

WHO IS THE STUDENT FEE COMMITTEE?

P. 4

D2L HAS G2G

P. 5

INTERNATIONAL AUSTRALIAN NEWS LAW CHALLENGES BIG TECH COMPANIES

P. 6

COVID VACCINE PASSPORTS RAISE INEQUALITY CONCERNS

P. 7

COVER STANDING UP FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM

P. 8–9

INTERNATIONAL THIS WEEK AROUND THE WORLD

P. 10

STAFF

EDIT ORI A L EDITOR IN CHIEF Justin Grinnell MANAGING EDITOR Nick Townsend NEWS EDITORS Hanna Anderson Dylan Jefferies INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Karisa Yuasa SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Béla Kurzenhauser ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Morgan Troper

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY STATE LEGISLATURES CLASH OVER NATURAL GAS ARTS & CULTURE THIRD-PARTY DELIVERY APPS ESSENTIAL BUT FRUSTRATING FOR SMALL PORTLAND RESTAURANTS

P. 12

THE MAURITANIAN IS CHILLING

P. 13

OPINION PSU ISN’T LIVING UP TO ITS VALUES

P. 14

HAZELNUT GROVE SHOULD BE CELEBRATED, NOT DESTROYED

P. 15

BACK COVER VIRTUAL EVENTS CALENDAR

P. 16

OPINION EDITOR Nick Gatlin

MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Olivia Lee

STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Sheri Pitcher

ONLINE EDITOR Lily Hennings

PRODUC TION & DE SIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Sam Person

TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Corrine Nightingale

COPY CHIEF Sophie Concannon CONTRIBUTORS Sofie Brandt Conor Carroll Amanda Carey Pandora DeSpain Melody Field Nova Johnson Analisa Landeros Claire Plaster Meghan Utzman PHO T O & MULTIMEDI A PHOTO EDITOR Annie Schutz

DESIGNERS Farah Alkayed Sam Garcia Shannon Steed T ECHNOL OGY & W EB SIT E TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Juliana Bigelow Kahela Fickle George Olson A DV ISING & ACCOUN TING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood

P. 11

To contact Portland State Vanguard, email editor@psuvanguard.com MIS SION S TAT EMEN T Vanguard ’s mission is to serve the Portland State community with timely, accurate, comprehensive and critical content while

upholding high journalistic standards. In the process, we aim to enrich our staff with quality, hands-on journalism education and a number of skills highly valued in today’s job market.

A BOU T Vanguard, established in 1946, is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Student Media Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. Find us in print Tuesdays and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.

CLASS OF 2020 GRADUATE. COURTESY OF PSU

PSU ANNOUNCES A VIRTUAL COMMENCEMENT COVID-19 UPDATE CEREMONY FOR 2021

HANNA ANDERSON

TOTAL AT PSU AS OF MARCH 8: 43 CASES

Two February cases, 0 March cases No new COVID-19 cases have been reported at Portland State since the beginning of March, holding PSU at 43 cases over the course of the pandemic.

PSU relies heavily on a self-reporting system for people who have tested positive or inconclusive, and have been on campus within two weeks of a positive test. The self-reporting form can be found on PSU’s Coronavirus Response website.

TOTAL IN OREGON AS OF MARCH 7: 157,285 CASES; 2,296 DEATHS

Total Vaccinations: 316,595 vaccines in progress, 410,434 fully vaccinated, 727,029 people total Oregon Governor Kate Brown announced on Friday she will pass an executive order requiring that all schools in Oregon offer universal access to in person learning by mid-April.

Brown made the announcement via a letter to leaders of the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Department of Education. The order will mandate that students in grades K-5 have an in person option on or before the week of March 29, and that students in grades 6-12 have the option on or before the week of April 19. Students who wish to remain fully online will also have the option to do so, according to AP News.

TOTAL IN U.S. AS OF FEB. 28: 28,813,424 CASES; 523,850 DEATHS

Total vaccinations in U.S. as of Feb. 27: 60 million received at least one dose; 31.2 million fully vaccinated The United States Senate passed the $1.9 trillion relief bill Saturday with a 50-49 party line vote. According to AP News, all of the amendments to the bill, nearly all of which were proposed

by Republicans, were rejected. No Republican, either in the House or the Senate, has voted in favor of the bill so far.

The bill moves on for final congressional approval in the House, and if approved there, will move on to Biden for his signature.

The Center for Disease Control released its first set of guidelines for fully-vaccinated individuals Monday, which includes being able to gather in groups with other fully-vaccinated individuals, indoors, without requiring masks or social distancing.

To be considered fully vaccinated by the guidelines, a person must wait at least two weeks after receiving the second dose of a two-dose vaccine, such as those by Pfizer or Moderna, or the first of a single-dose vaccine, like the newly released Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

Vaccinated people can also visit a single household of unvaccinated people without masks or social distancing, according to the recommendations, provided they’re at a low risk for severe COVID-19 symptoms.

The CDC still recommends that fully-vaccinated people continue to practice social distancing and wearing masks in public, while avoiding large crowds, groups and gatherings.

PSU Vanguard • MARCH 9, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

HANNA ANDERSON Graduation is going virtual—again.

Portland State President Stephen Percy announced Thursday that commencement ceremonies will be held online for the second year in a row due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have come to the difficult decision to once again hold virtual commencement ceremonies,” Percy stated. “The unpredictable nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has led us to the conclusion that a virtual ceremony is the best option to keep our community safe. While more people are being vaccinated every day, state and local health officials have given no indication that they will be changing prohibitions on large, in-person gatherings.”

The online commencent will take place on June 13, but no specific details regarding plans for the ceremony have been released yet. The usual graduation regalia won’t be required— but can be purchased online.

University of Oregon and Oregon State University have also announced online commencement ceremonies for 2021.

Percy also announced in the campus-wide email that PSU is in the process of arranging on-campus photography appointments in June for graduates to commemorate graduation.

Eligible graduates will be emailed with more details. Photo ops will be extended to the class of 2020 as well.

Shortly after state lockdowns took effect last year, PSU made the controversial decision to hold commencement ceremonies exclusively online. The school originally insisted that no plans would be made to alternatively postpone the ceremony, in order to dedicate more focus to the event online. Students expressed their disappointment over social media, and a petition to postpone the event started circulating online.

After working with Associated Students of Portland State University, PSU later changed its decision and announced that an in-person graduation ceremony would be held once Oregon Health Authority allowed for it. No additional word on an in-person commencement for the class of 2020 was included in Thursday’s announcement.

This is a developing story—a longer piece will be released in our March 16 issue. We want to hear from you! If you have thoughts or comments, email news@psuvanguard.com or editor@psuvanguard.com and your responses may be featured in a future article.

NEWS

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PSU’S BUDGET-SETTING PROCESS. COURTESY OF THE SFC

‘IF YOU FEEL ANGRY YOU’RE AT THE RIGHT PLACE’

SFC MEMBERS DISCUSS THEIR ROLE AT PSU AT VIRTUAL TOWN HALL

MEGHAN UTZMAN Students posed questions and voiced their concerns during the Student Fee Committee (SFC) town hall last week, where members of the SFC discussed their sometimes misunderstood role at Portland State.

The SFC is responsible for funding and sustaining individualized resources and career opportunities for PSU students. The SFC is a group of seven students elected alongside members of the Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU)—and together they make up PSU’s student government.

There are two laws in Oregon that dictate the process for determining the cost of education, and subsequently, how much students are charged: Oregon Revised Statute 352.102, which applies to tuition, and 352.105, which covers mandatory incidental fees.

The remaining mandatory fees that go toward student buildings, Health Services, the Recreation Center and online learning are set

by PSU’s Board of Trustees, who are appointed

by Oregon Governor Kate Brown. PSU also requires students taking over five credits to have medical insurance and “automatically charges $935 to student accounts unless they already have health coverage and waive out by the deadline.”

“The SFC was created to give students a voice in what they pay, and where that money goes,” Committee Chair Kierra Wing said.

“Once elected, the SFC gets started on determining a funding philosophy for the upcoming year,” said SFC member Hakan Kutgun. “In line with that funding philosophy, we determine the budgets and allocations for the student fee funded areas and make necessary calculations and deliberations.”

Those figures are then presented to ASPSU, and if agreed upon, the SFC budget becomes the joint recommendation of the student government before making its way to President Stephen Percy—and following approval, to the BOT for final review.

While the formation and distribution of student incidental fees are fairly straightfor-

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ward, the SFC has less control over the student building fee. Wing described it as a “mandatory fee that we have to pay for building debt services—and for funding small building projects for past renovations, such as space relocation for the Women’s Resource Center, tactile map creation, Smith’s lactation rooms and all-gender restroom signs.”

PSU offers opportunities through their resource centers, as well avenues for student employment, including many that the SFC helps fund. “This is the budget process, but our work doesn’t end here,” Kutgun said.

“Throughout the year we maintain consistent communications with these fee-funded areas to ensure that these services and opportunities provided to students are always working.”

Wing said that the question the SFC gets asked most is, “If classes aren’t on campus, why can’t you refund more?”

“The majority of our budget—80%—goes toward employing people. And the future of sustained operations—if we cut fee-funded areas now—what would we come back to?”

Wing said.

The SFC’s budget of over $18 million—made up of students’ incidental fees—has funded a combined 1,292 student jobs during 2020– 21 so far. The $34 reimbursement students received applies to the “refund of cancelled events and programming, and reduced workers hours,” Wing said.

“People deserve healthcare, retirement and raises. We have a commitment to students, but it’s not in the best interest of morale, productivity and honesty to not respect people’s contracted benefits. We support unions and workers rights who are out here to protect the people who are protecting us.”

Since the spring of 2020, “$2 million has been refunded to students from the SFC fund, compared to all other public universities across the state not offering any financial reimbursements,” according to SFC member Nick Dickens.

PLACES ON CAMPUS FUNDED BY THE STUDENT INCIDENTAL FEE, WHICH IS ALLOCATED BY THE SFC. COURTESY OF THE SFC “Due to decline in enrollment, they have to shared student sense of “where’s my money raise the tuition to meet that gap, and the SFC and what’s it going toward?” and there are doesn’t get a say in the enrollment and tuition some valid frustrations—as some town hall rates, only in regard to the student incidental attendees voiced. and building fees,” Wing said.

“I understand that you guys are getting the Those numbers were recently discussed brunt of the anger, but if you’re not angry, then during a February budget town hall with Percy you’re the problem, simple as that,” said a SFC and his leadership team: “Fall enrollment was town hall attendee. down 7.8% from the prior year, and winter “I am angry, I am always angry, just not todown by 8.3%,” said Chuck Knepfle, PSU’s ward students,” Kutgun said. “If you feel anvice president of enrollment management. gry, you’re at the right place. Come to ASPSU, “Around the first of the year, both freshman we need more angry people.” and transfer applications were down 30% from “Join ASPSU, contact the SFC with your conthe prior year,” he said. “On the positive side, cerns and thoughts, attend our meetings—if graduate enrollment and recruitment have you’re angry about things, join an organizanot seen the same decline as undergraduates.” tion that’s committed to fixing those things,” Given that the cost of tuition and manda- Wing added. tory fees at times originate from divergent “It’s hard to try and balance the interests spaces and are governed by separate bod- of students with what the university allows ies, knowing where to direct financial ques- us to do, so I hear you, I really do,” said SFC tions isn’t always easy. Combine that with a member Dominique Chen.

PSU Vanguard • MARCH 9, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

D2L HAS G2G

PSU WILL SWITCH TO CANVAS IN WINTER 2022

HANNA ANDERSON

When it comes to Portland State’s learning management system (LMS), D2L is officially done for.

Instead, PSU is switching to an LMS called Canvas, after deciding that it would serve the university better than its current online course hub, Brightspace—better known as D2L, the company that owns the Brightspace LMS. The Office of Academic Affairs (OAA) made the announcement Feb. 19.

The migration process from one system to another will take awhile—about a year. All classes will be in Canvas by winter 2022.

The Office of Academic Innovation (OAI) will host weekly Canvas information sessions in the spring term. Course migration from D2L into Canvas will start in the summer and continue into fall 2021—however, outside of the existing pilot program, no classes will be held in Canvas until the official campus-wide launch in winter 2022.

From Associate Director of Academic Technology and Faculty Support Molly Griffith: “We really see it as an opportunity to not just move things from one system to the other, but to engage our campus in a conversation about how we do teaching and learning.”

PSU has used D2L’s LMS for about 10 years, according to Griffith, and PSU’s contract with D2L will end in the middle of the spring 2022 term.

When it came to being an LMS, the committee found D2L was lagging behind its competition.

An LMS is a course’s virtual foundation—whether the course is held entirely online or is an in-person course with online elements—and acts as a learning hub that can host discussions, assignments, quizzes, grades and other class-related elements. It’s a learning environment like a classroom, and like a classroom, can affect courses for better or for worse.

“If D2L, or our current LMS, was a building, it would be the most heavily trafficked building on campus,” Griffith said. “So we realized that it’s very important for us to make sure that that digital learning environment is the best one for students.”

OAI first considered a potential switch to a new LMS in January 2019, and an official LMS selection committee soon followed. The initial process lasted from January 2019–June 2020, but was later put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. This term, winter 2021, the project resumed, culminating in OAA’s official decision.

The LMS selection committee found D2L came with ongoing issues for its users. For faculty, there were too many and too complicated options for configuring classes, which often translated to students as difficult to navigate and carried inconsistencies between classes.

“There has been consistent feedback from students that it’s challenging,” said Michelle

Giovannozzi, the associate vice provost for the Office of Academic Innovation. “The courses are built differently, navigated differently and each faculty member has a different flavor and approach—not because of anything that they’ve done, but because of the actual platform, how it’s configured and how things are structured.”

Canvas, in essence, is D2L’s opposite, limiting its options for a more user-friendly experience.

According to OAI’s LMS Transition Report, three other colleges that recently switched from D2L to Canvas reported a 50% or greater decrease in support tickets after their switch.

“One of the primary reasons to migrate to Canvas is to have a more consistent, predictable, planful interface for students, so when going from one class to another, it’ll be much easier to transition or what to expect,” Giovannozzi said.

Griffith likened the differences between the two services as similar to those between Windows and iOS systems—where one is more customizable but complicated, the other has a greater focus on accessibility and ease of use.

One example of a feature in D2L that will be lost in Canvas are weighted grades and complex grading schemes. On the other hand, according to Griffith, setting up an effective grade book was one of the most frustrating functions on D2L. “There will be a few features that will be lost,

but those are sacrifices that are made in the name of usability and clarity and consistency,” she said.

When it comes to paying for Canvas—while PSU is under pressure to balance its struggling budget—the cost, at least for the LMS itself, is expected to be relatively similar to that of D2L, according to Giovannozzi.

“It’s not a new expense, it’s a continuing expense,” she said. “In terms of transitioning from one platform to another, that’s fairly cost neutral. Where there are additional expenses in the actual migration.”

Some of those additional costs will come from a period of overlap where PSU is using and paying for both systems, which, due to the pandemic, will be a minimal amount of time. Additional staff may also be needed for various migration functions.

According to Giovannozzi and Griffith, there are very few, if any, factors that could slow migration down and prevent the process from finishing before its winter 2022 launch.

“This has been underway and in consideration for a long time,” Giovannozzi said.

“So all that groundwork, all that planning, all those timelines, all the interdependencies and complexities have been looked at and addressed, which—knock on wood—will make things go very smoothly.”

SHANNON STEED

PSU Vanguard • MARCH 9, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

NEWS

5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS LAW CHALLENGES BIG TECH COMPANIES

KARISA YUASA Australia’s parliament passed the final amendments to the News Media Bargaining Code on Feb. 25, which force Google and Facebook to pay for news, according to AP News.

The news code pushes the tech giants and news organizations to arrange payment deals between themselves.

According to BBC, the code also requires Facebook and Google to invest millions of dollars in local digital content.

“The purpose of the code is to address the market power that clearly Google and Facebook have,” said Rod Sims, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commision chair that drafted the code. “Google and Facebook need media, but they don’t need any particular media company and that meant media companies couldn’t do commercial deals.”

The justification of the new legislation is that Google and Facebook are taking away revenue from local media outlets who have little negotiating power. For every $100 spent on advertising in Australia, Google earns $53 and Facebook earns $28.

According to The Guardian, when the legislation was first announced, Facebook threatened to block Australians from sharing news and Google threatened to remove search from Australia.

The first of its kind legislation is being watched by other countries who are expected to follow. According to Reuters, Canada and Britain are expected to announce similar legislation.

On Feb. 18, Facebook announced it blocked Australian users from sharing or viewing any news content in response to the new legislation.

“The proposed law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share content,” Facebook wrote in a blog post.

Facebook argued the relationship between Facebook and publishers favors the publishers.

“Publishers willingly choose to post news on Facebook, as it allows them to sell more subscriptions, grow their audiences and increase their advertising revenue,” said William Easton, Facebook manager for Australia and New Zealand. “[The law] has left us facing a stark choice: attempt to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or stop allowing news content on our services in Australia,” the blog post states. “With a heavy heart, we are choosing the latter.”

In addition to blocking news on its platform, several health and emergency pages were also blocked—something Facebook later announced as a mistake, according to BBC. “Facebook's actions to unfriend Australia today, cutting off essential information services on health and emergency services, were as arrogant as they were disappointing,” wrote Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in a Facebook post.

“These actions will only confirm the concerns that an increasing number of countries are expressing about the behaviour of BigTech companies who think they are bigger than governments and that the rules should not apply to them.”

Facebook’s news ban also faced international criticism.

“I think it's staggeringly irresponsible—at a time when we are facing a plethora of fake news and disinformation in relation to the [COVID-19] vaccine," said Julian Knight, the head of the British parliamentary committee that oversees media.

"This is not just about Australia. This is Facebook putting a marker down, saying to the world that 'if you do wish to limit our powers…we can remove what is for many people a utility.'”

According to BBC, United States Congressperson David Cicilline wrote in a tweet “Facebook is not compatible with democracy. Threatening to bring an entire country to its knees to agree to Facebook’s terms is the ultimate admission of monopoly power.”

On Feb. 22, Facebook announced the restoration of news on its Australian platform after reaching an agreement with the Australian government.

“It’s always been our intention to support journalism in Australia and around the world,” said Campbell Brown, Vice President of Global News Partnerships at Facebook. “We’ll continue to invest in news globally and resist efforts by media conglomerates to advance regulatory frameworks that do not take account of the true value exchange between publishers and platforms like Facebook.”

Google has agreed to the amendments alongside Facebook.

Both companies are now pursuing Australian media deals under their respective licensing models: Google News Showcase and Facebook News.

“To the millions of Australians who use Google Search every day: thanks for bearing with us while we’ve sent you messages about this issue,” said Mel Silva, Managing Director of Google Australia in a statement. “We’re now going to get on with what matters most - helping you get the information you need.”

A MAN USING A MOBILE PHONE WALKS PAST GOOGLE OFFICES. MARK LENNIHAN/AP PHOTO

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INTERNATIONAL

PSU Vanguard • MARCH 9, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

COVID-19 VACCINE PASSPORTS RAISE INEQUALITY CONCERNS

AN ISRAELI MAN RECEIVES THE SECOND DOSE OF THE PFIZERBIONTECH COVID-19 VACCINE. ODED BALILTY/AP PHOTO

KARISA YUASA As COVID-19 vaccines are distributed around the world, countries are debating on vaccine passports or systems that allow travel once vaccination documentation is obtained, according to AP News.

In Israel, a country that has adequate vaccine supply to inoculate everyone over 16, vaccine passports, also known as Green Passes, have already started to be implemented.

The green passports or badges are obtained through an app.

For the first time since the pandemic began, Israeli musician Aviv Geffen took to the stage in front of a crowd of 300 as reported by AP News. Every member of the masked and socially distant crowd had to show a green passport to be let in.

“It’s really the only way forward at the moment,” Geffen said. “People can’t live their lives in the new world without them. We must take the vaccines. We must.”

“With the Green Pass, doors just open for you,” read an announcement from Feb. 21, the day much of the Israeli economy reopened.

“You could go out to restaurants, work out at the gym, see a show.”

Proponents of vaccine passports see it as the safe way to reopen tourism, especially in places that are dependent on it for economic reasons.

Israel has come to agreements with Greece and Cyprus to recognize each other’s green

badges in an effort to boost tourism between the countries.

The European Union is in discussions about allowing member states to adopt a passport program that allows for the free travel between countries.

Along with Greece and Cyprus who have digital certificates, Denmark, Sweden and Austria have been in talks of how to develop them.

“That should allow you to prove, on your mobile phone, that you’ve been tested, inoculated or have recovered [from COVID-19],” said Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, according to BBC. “Our goal: to avoid a lengthy lockdown and finally enable freedom to travel again in the EU, and freedom to enjoy events and cuisine.”

Other EU countries such as France and Germany have stated their worries that the documents could be premature given vaccine research.

A report by the Royal Society published on Feb. 14 said the vaccine passport program would have to meet legal and ethical standards especially in relation to data protection, human rights, equality and discrimination laws.

“A central ethical concern is to first determine who you would exclude if certificates were introduced,” said Melinda Mills, director of the Leverhulme Center for Demographic Science at the University of Oxford and co-author of the report.

PSU Vanguard • MARCH 9, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

“There are certain people who are unable to have vaccines for medical reasons, such as those with allergies or pregnant women. In some countries, certain ethnic minorities are more vaccine hesitant, which would mean that this group could be inadvertently excluded.”

Some worry that the inequalities in discrimination in terms of policing will also increase due to the passports.

“You could easily see a situation where it’s creating discrimination, prejudice and stigma,” said Halima Begum, who runs a British racial equity organization called the Runnymede Trust.

“We already saw, with the coronavirus regulations with lockdown, disproportionate amounts of stops and searches for young minority men. So you can see who is potentially likelier [sic] to be grabbed up for not carrying the passport and therefore be denied access.”

Others worry that vaccination passports will widen social and economic inequalities between richer and poorer countries and communities.

The New York Times reported vaccines are available at higher rates in richer countries and in privileged racial groups between them.

“If we are opening up the world only to people from high-income countries, we are creating a lot of inequity,” said Nicole Errett, a University of Washington Public Health Expert, according to The New York Times.

“We’re cutting people off from resources and from connections that keep economies and communities thriving. A challenge since the beginning has been getting countries to do what’s best for the world instead of what’s best for people inside their borders.”

The U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced on Feb. 17 just 10 countries had administered 75% of all vaccines and over 130 countries have yet to receive a single dose.

“There’s a huge moral crisis in equity globally because in high income countries like Israel or the United States or the EU countries, we’re likely to get to herd immunity by the end of this year,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. “But for many low-income countries, most people won’t be vaccinated for many years. Do we really want to give priority to people who already have so many privileges?”

The consensus remains undecided on the viability of the vaccine passports—however, they are believed to be an important decision countries will need to make.

“We need to be cognizant of the costs and benefits, the precedent we’re setting,” Errett said. “We pandemic people have been saying it since the beginning: We don’t expect this to be the last pandemic that we see.”

INTERNATIONAL

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STANDING UP FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM

IN RESPONSE TO NATIONAL ‘WOKE@’ CAMPAIGN, PSU FACULTY SENATE PASSES RESOLUTION EMPHASIZING DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND HARASSMENT

DYLAN JEFFERIES

Academic freedom: What is it? What does it protect? And where is the line between free speech and abuse?

These are some of the questions the Portland State Faculty Senate set out to answer in a resolution passed unanimously on March 1.

“Academic freedom is to the university what the freedoms of expression, association, and assembly are to democracy,” the resolution reads. “As with the abuse of democratic rights, carelessness in the exercise of academic freedom can undermine, stifle, and annihilate academic freedom itself.”

“As Faculty, we must be thoughtful in our exercise of academic freedom and guard against its cynical abuse that can take the form of bullying and intimidation,” the resolution continues. “This kind of abuse of academic freedom destroys academic freedom by eroding the trust that makes possible open dialogue, which is a central tenet in university intellectual life as well as in the practice of participatory democracy more broadly.”

In a letter to the campus community, President Stephen Percy and Provost Susan Jeffords provided their support for the resolution.

“As a community, we have a responsibility to one another to keep our campus environment—virtual and in-person—free from harassment and intimidation,” they wrote. “Our values as an institution include creating a safe space for a variety of perspectives and debate of intellectual ideas, advancing racial

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justice, supporting student success and fulfilling our role as a civic leader and partner within our community. While there are sometimes points of tension among these goals we do not view them as mutually exclusive or competing. These values underpin everything we do at [PSU].”

In addition to the resolution, Percy and Jeffords also noted “the university and our [American Association of University Professors] colleagues will be working together to develop a guide available to members of the university who are experiencing harassment or other pressure from individuals or groups off campus.”

BACKGROUND

According to Michele Gamburd, presiding officer of the Faculty Senate, recent incidents at PSU involving “bullying and intimidation” led to the resolution on academic freedom. (Because those incidents are personnel issues, Gamburd could not comment on the specific incidents.)

“I think what we’re seeing is that PSU is experiencing something that has happened at other universities as well, which is, I would portray as a kind of right-wing backlash against a lot of the work that campuses are doing on diversity, equity and inclusion,” Gamburd said in an interview.

These incidents, according to Gamburd, involve professors using social media to encourage their students and the general public to “bully, intimidate and harass” faculty that they dis-

agree with. An example: posting a professor’s syllabus or Zoom lectures on social media, and encouraging followers to contact the professor who made them.

“They instigate hate crimes, basically,” Gamburd said.

This is in reference to the recent “Woke@” campaign on Instagram, where individuals are encouraged to post university materials that they believe perpetuate liberal ideology.

According to Presiding Officer Elect of the Faculty Senate Vicki Reitenauer at the March 1 Faculty Senate meeting: “Over several meetings of the Faculty Senate Steering Committee, when it became clear that the current national Woke@ campaign that’s taking place and being forwarded on a number of campuses where individuals, students and others are being encouraged to send material to an [Instagram account] that is meant to showcase work that is considered ‘woke’ by the definitions of those who are forwarding this kind of process, that that’s touched us at PSU—there’s a Woke@PSU campaign— there have been individuals who have been targeted and had their materials and personal information posted through that site.”

The resolution, according to Reitenauer, is meant to show solidarity for those targeted professors.

“I think that what we’ve seen in discussions around ‘wokeness’ is people who are trying to reconceptualize what the work of the university is in a way to make it less threatening to their interests by saying that we are engaged with some sort of

PSU Vanguard • MARCH 9, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

SAM GARCIA a deep-state clampdown on anything except politically correct ways of thinking,” Gamburd said at the meeting.

“They believe themselves to be the saviors of free speech and free thought at the university,” Gamburd said later in an interview. “They believe that [liberal ideology] is being forced on people and that it’s creating a hostile environment for people who don’t share that commitment to equity.”

According to Gamburd, this kind of thinking has led to multiple instances of harassment against professors at the university, and is what inspired the recent Woke@ campaigns.

Gamburd noted that this issue isn’t exclusive to PSU. While the resolution was timed with a recent incident at PSU, it is also part of a larger, ongoing project to address the issue of professors using the guise of academic freedom to harass their colleagues with whom they disagree.

“A resolution like this is overdue,” Reitenauer said at the meeting.

Gamburd remarked that while people in human resources and the office of academic affairs are dealing with the issue, the Faculty Senate felt they needed to take a stand.

“We’re not censoring any faculty, but we are calling out behaviors that we feel are counter to the way we do things at an institution,” Gamburd said. “We want to be welcoming of diverse views, but we also have rules around conversations when we have a difference of opinion.”

“It’s not part of academic freedom to somehow have a right to take your colleagues copyrighted course materials, put them on the internet and encourage students to first view the materials, which is a violation of the student code of conduct, and then encourage the general public to attack your colleague.”

“That’s not academic freedom, that’s not acceptable,” she continued. “That isn’t even free speech, that’s hate speech and harassment, that’s bullying and intimidation, and the people who are experiencing that are disproportionately women and faculty of color.”

During discussion prior to voting on whether or not to adopt the resolution at the March 1 Faculty Senate meeting, some senators remarked that the resolution might not go far enough.

According to Senator Matt Chorpenning: “Academic freedom is already protecting a kind of status-quo of Portland polite racism, and I think it’s important to name that for the record. I am fully in support of this statement, but I think it’s important to name and hold that concern that what we’re really getting at is if we want to be more anti-racist as a university, we are not making a values-neutral claim, and we are saying that

PSU Vanguard • MARCH 9, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

there are things we will not tolerate, and I wonder if it would be worth it for us to explore saying that.”

Gamburd remarked that this kind of resolution is tricky to construct. It’s important to make a strong statement against using academic freedom as an excuse for harassment, but she said it’s also important not to give a “martyr complex” to individuals engaging in the harassment.

“They love publicity, so how do we do this so that they have less of it, while still supporting our faculty and taking a strong stance on our commitment to academic freedom?” she said.

“It’s a tricky balancing act, and anybody who sticks their neck out—even for the most positive of reasons—will get threatened, and that takes a personal toll.”

THE AAUP AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM

As Percy and Jeffords noted in their letter to the campus community, AAUP is also invested in this issue.

The following is a statement from PSU-AAUP representatives to Portland State Vanguard about the resolution: “On March 2, 2021, the Portland State University Faculty Senate passed a resolution on academic freedom. As the resolution reminds the PSU community, “University policies that spell out the commitment to academic freedom also recognize responsibilities that come with it.” It calls attention to the importance of differentiating between “the responsible use of academic freedom and the abuse of academic freedom.” President Percy and Provost Jeffords issued a statement affirming the Senate’s resolution, reiterating the necessity of “guarding against abuses” of free speech and academic freedom. “Our values as an institution,” they wrote, “include creating a safe space for a variety of perspectives and debate of intellectual ideas, advancing racial justice, supporting student success and fulfilling our role as a civic leader and partner within our community.”

PSU-AAUP welcomes the Faculty Senate’s resolution and the administration’s affirmation of the values voiced therein. We defend our members’ academic freedom and their right to express it in public forums. However, when this public engagement takes the form of, and indeed encourages, disrespect, bullying, and intimidation of our colleagues, all the while invoking academic freedom as a shield, academic freedom is being abused and undermined. In fact, PSU-AAUP has filed a Division A grievance on behalf of members who have been targets of online bullying and harassment occurring under the guise of academic freedom.

Even before this Faculty Senate resolution passed and President Percy and Provost Jeffords affirmed it, PSU-AAUP

bargained with Administration over these very issues. Although PSU has in place various practices and procedures for dealing with intimidation and harassment at the workplace, we argued that academic freedom is increasingly chilled by public campaigns targeting particular faculty and programs, and that PSU needs to update and disseminate its protocols as part of its commitment to uphold academic freedom. As President Percy and Provost Jeffords noted in their message to campus, one outcome of bargaining over these issues is that the administration and PSU-AAUP agreed to develop a guide for responding to harassment, intimidation, or other pressure from individuals and groups off campus. When individuals on campus participate in or endorse these abusive tactics, they are claiming academic freedom in bad faith.”

MOVING FORWARD

According to Gamburd, this is a rare moment in which the AAUP, Faculty Senate and administration are all on the same page.

“That doesn’t happen all that often, but this [resolution] is the defence of the core principle of how we do things at the university,” she said.

What kind of impact does the senate hope this resolution might make?

“It gives the administration and the senate and the union something to refer back to when we say, these are the bounds for how we do academic discussions, and these are the things that are out of bounds and not acceptable,” Gamburd said.

Additionally, she noted that the resolution could be a step towards holding professors who participate in harassment campaigns accountable.

At the March 1 meeting, Gamburd remarked: “I think what we’re trying to do here is to draw the lines around how we play the game of academic debate in ways that do not threaten and intimidate our colleagues, or ask our students to break the student code of conduct.”

“This is a point at which the faculty, the administration and the union are standing together to defend one of the basic values of our institution,” Gamburd said.

At this time, there are no plans to pass a similar resolution.

“We are trying to clarify how you can use [academic freedom], and what sorts of behaviors and principles are covered by it, and which ones don’t fit,” Gamburd said. “Will we go any further on it? No plans at the moment, but if it becomes necessary, we might need to.”

COVER

9

THIS WEEK

around the

WORLD

Feb. 28–March 6

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5 1 3

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KARISA YUASA

1

February 28

MYANMAR

At least 18 protesters were killed and 30 more wounded by security forces on the deadliest day of protests since the coup on February 1, according to NPR. This brings the total number of protesters killed since the coup—where military forces seized control of the democratically elected government—to 21. According to Reuters, one protester killed on Sunday—internet network engineer Nyi Nyi Aung Htet Naing—posted “#How_Many_Dead_Bodies_UN_Need_To_Take_Action” on Facebook the day before. The United Nations SecretaryGeneral issued a statement where he “strongly condemns the violent crackdown” on protesters. “The people of Myanmar have the right to assemble peacefully and demand the restoration of democracy,” said U.N. Human Rights spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani. “Use of lethal force against non-violent demonstrators is never justifiable under international human rights norms.”

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March 1

LIMA, PERU

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori appeared in court for his role in a 1990s government program that was linked to the forced sterilization of indigenous women in poor communities, according to AP News. “My partner told me no man would want me because I was a woman that served no purpose because I couldn’t have children,” Nancy Sanchez Guerrero said, according to France 24. “If they wanted to do the sterilizations they should have asked us, explained things to us and let every

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INTERNATIONAL

individual make her decision.” Fujimori is currently serving a 25-year sentence for two military killings during his 1990–2000 administration and has been convicted of corruption. He faces an additional trial for six other military murders during his administration. According to AP News, Fujimori has boasted about the sterilization program involved in the case, saying that it dropped Peru’s birth rate from 3.7 children per woman in 1990 to 2.7 in 2000.

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March 2

THAILAND

Thai navy sailors rescued four cats on a boat that was quickly sinking into the Andaman Sea. According to BBC, the Navy officers were sent to the site of the sinking vessel to check for an oil spill after the fishing boat caught on fire and started to sink, but noticed the cats still onboard. “I used my camera to zoom in to the boat, and I saw one or two cats popping their heads out,” said First Class Petty Officer Wichit Pukdeelon of the navy’s air and coastal defence division, according to Reuters. A Facebook post received over 2,500 comments on Wednesday praising the efforts of the officers.

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March 3

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

Northern Irish loyalist parliamentary groups sent a letter to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson explaining they are temporarily withdrawing support for the 1998 peace agreement due to Brexit concerns, according to Reuters. The peace agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement, ended three

decades of violence between Catholic nationalists fighting for a united Ireland and mostly Protestant loyalists fighting to keep Northern Ireland part of the United Kingdom. The group said that they would not return to the agreement until the Northern Ireland Protocol was amended to ensure free trade between Northern Ireland and the UK, according to Al Jazeera. “Please do not underestimate the strength of feeling on this issue right across the unionist family,” the letter, sent

by Loyalist Communities Council chairman David Campbell, stated. “If you or the EU is not prepared to honour the entirety of the agreement then you will be responsible for the permanent destruction of the agreement.”

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March 6

PLAINS OF UR, IRAQ

During his visit to Iraq, Pope Francis held a meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani—the first meeting between a pope and such a senior Shiite cleric, according to Reuters.

“Hostility, extremism and violence are not born of a religious heart—they are betrayals of religion,” the pope said. “We believers cannot be silent when terrorism abuses religion; indeed, we are called unambiguously to dispel all misunderstandings.” Following the historic interfaith meeting, the pope attended a gathering of Iraqi religious leaders to a 6,000-yearold site known as the traditional birthplace of Abraham—the biblical patriarch respected by Muslims, Jews and Christians.

Despite safety and COVID-19 related concerns, the pope followed through with his first international trip since the start of the pandemic, as reported by AP News.

PSU Vanguard • MARCH 9, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

THE NATIONAL CLASH OVER NATURAL GAS THE FUTURE OF NATURAL GAS IN THE US IS UP FOR GRABS

SEATTLE MAYOR JENNY DURKAN. ELAINE THOMPSON/AP PHOTO

CONOR CARROLL Legislators in nearly a dozen states recently proposed bills that forbid local governments from adopting California-style limitations on gas usage in new buildings. The legislative push continues a trend from 2020, when nine states introduced similar legislation and four states passed the prohibitions into law.

Nationwide, states have been struggling with the side-effects of heat-trapping emissions and climate change. From wildfires and droughts, to hurricanes and historic cold snaps, the lack of political will to pass substantive climate legislation has been ubiquitous in state legislatures.

“As you’re really looking at what’s going to come out of the Biden administration, they’re really talking about remaking the entire economy through a green lens, and that means eliminating natural gas,” said Sue Forrester, the vice president of advocacy and outreach for the American Gas Association (AGA), according to an NPR report.

In Feb. 2020, the Arizona state legislature inhibited the city of Flagstaff’s plan for its buildings. The city’s intent was to reduce reliance on fossil fuel-based infrastructure while “promoting aggressive building electrification” in the process, according to the Flagstaff Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. With the backing of the state’s main gas utility, the legislature instituted a measure which prevents municipalities and counties from banning new

gas infrastructure. The Arizona state law was essentially a test case for an approach that the natural gas industry is utilizing nationwide.

Gas utility companies, with assistance from industry trade factions, have effectively lobbied politicians over the past year to establish comparable “preemption” policy in 12 primarily Republican-maintained state legislatures, according to a report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Arizona is not alone in such climate action.

The move to curb or protect gas usage in new construction projects have taken similar shape in other states such as Washington and Massachusetts. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan recommended an amendment to the city’s energy code that would forbid fossil fuel combustion for space and water heating in new commercial buildings or multi-family residences.

“It is up to Seattle and other cities to make the bold changes necessary to lower our greenhouse gas emissions,” said Durkan in a Jan. 13 press release. “Business as usual will not get us to a future where all Seattle residents, especially our Black, Indigenous and people of color neighbors who are unfairly burdened by environmental inequities, enjoy a healthy and prosperous future.”

This was the third attempt in Seattle to hamper gas use in new buildings since 2019.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee put forward comprehensive legislation that could

PSU Vanguard • MARCH 9, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

phase out natural gas use in buildings through 2050. According to a report from the National Law Review, “Fossil-based natural gas may be headed for a reckoning, at least in Washington State.”

In Massachusetts, over a dozen municipalities have initiated a statewide campaign pursuing authorization to curtail gas usage in new buildings after the state attorney general’s office struck down the state’s first gas ban.

On Jan. 4, Massachusetts’ state legislature passed a climate protocol that included a prospective method for awarding said authority. Governor Charles Baker vetoed this bill, stating he would work with the chamber on climate policy in the next session. For instance, the Baker administration’s climate roadmap emphasized transitioning to electric space heating.

The gas industry sees an existential threat in the endeavors of cities, states, businesses—and now the Biden administration—to dramatically lessen fossil fuel use. Although natural gas produces half as much carbon dioxide (CO2) when combusted than coal does, climate scientists have made it clear that one of the largest contributors to climate change is natural gas itself. Expansion of natural gas utilization could hinder efforts to stabilize warming effects.

However, contrary to scientific opinion, the U.S. energy industry intends to invest billions of dollars into constructing terminals

and pipelines over the next few years in order to increase the export of more natural gas in a product form known as LNG (liquified natural gas). The energy industry claims that despite these worries, natural gas is a safer alternative to other fossil fuels.

In the U.S., natural gas from the country’s fracking industry has helped drive a dramatic reduction in the usage of coal to generate electricity. Overall, U.S. CO2 emissions have fallen 15% from their 2007 peak, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

However, natural gas is a fossil fuel, and still inhibits the earth’s ability to heal from burning energy sources obtained from under the earth’s surface. Scientists say that CO2 emissions must be reduced to net zero by 2050, which leaves far less room for usage of fossil fuels of any kind.

Global CO2 emissions need to fall by about 7.6% a year between now and 2030 to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius target posited by the Paris Climate Agreement, according to the U.N. Environment Program. In 2019, U.S. emissions fell by about 2.9%, according to the Parisbased International Energy Agency.

However, emissions from the natural gas business in the U.S. are growing so speedily that the sector “is quickly becoming one of the biggest, if not the biggest, challenges to address climate change,” according to Pep Canadell, senior research scientist at CSIRO Climate Science Centre in Canberra, Australia.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

11

THIRD-PARTY DELIVERY APPS ESSENTIAL BUT FRUSTRATING FOR SMALL PORTLAND RESTAURANTS LEFT: DU’S GRILL. AMANDA CAREY/PSU VANGUARD BELOW: PDX SLIDERS. SOFIE BRANDT/PSU VANGUARD

MORGAN TROPER After nearly a year of uncertainty and financial anxiety, restaurants throughout the Portland metro area are slowly beginning to reopen. The state government formally concluded last month that Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties all fell beneath the “extreme risk” threshold for COVID-19 transmission, allowing them to open at either 25 or 50% capacity, whichever number is lower. Many restaurants throughout the country continue to lean on third-party delivery apps for revenue, since they lack in-house delivery services. Since these restaurants’ ability to host in-person dining hinges on reduced COVID-19 transmission rates within their communities—a situation that remains unpredictable—it’s unlikely things will change anytime soon.

For many restaurants and businesses in Portland and beyond, COVID-19 has been the proverbial kiss of death—but it’s also, not surprisingly, been something of a boon for delivery apps, whose business in 2020 more than doubled according to a study conducted by Market Watch last year. The delivery app industry is almost entirely dominated by “the big four”—which, in order of market dominance, are DoorDash, Uber Eats, Postmates and GrubHub. While many of Portland’s best and most iconic restaurants—from fast food and brunch to Thai and teriyaki—are offering delivery through one or more of these third-party delivery apps, the relationship between restaurant and delivery app can be tense. These challenges range from financial to the more logistical, as Adrian

12

ARTS & CULTURE

Caputo—owner of the restaurant PDX Sliders in SE Portland—told Portland State Vanguard.

“Grubhub is the worst, and they have been told on numerous occasions about their inability to work with businesses,” Caputo wrote over email. “They do not match adjusted order prep times. If I enter a 30 minute prep time, they still send a courier within 10 to 15 minutes, which only leads to stress and anger. The courier is frustrated they have to wait, even though I set the time for later.”

According to Caputo, the main challenge in dealing with third-party delivery apps is the lack of coordination between restaurant, app and courier. “Some [couriers] can be very rude and abrasive because they are on a schedule,” he said. Caputo says that sometimes a delivery app will lump certain items together, indicating a single, uniform prep time to the courier, even though that prep time will only apply to one item and not necessarily the entire order.

Moreover, Caputo—whose restaurant utilizes multiple delivery apps—is constantly having to juggle each app’s unique interface.

He suggests one possible solution might simply be to give restaurants more control, and possibly a more direct interface with the courier: “If the restaurants could control times, or even untether orders, it may help keep couriers moving and keep orders from sitting too long.”

Fabian Avendano—the manager at the NE Sandy location of Du’s Grill, a hallowed Portland teriyaki joint—stressed that takeout is still the most lucrative and convenient for his restaurant, but that Grubhub is a runner-up, especially as it gives customers the ability to leave notes in

their orders. “That’s the first one we started with, and we already adapted to its system,” Avendano said. “The little comments people leave—like ‘I love you guys,’ or just little comments like that— makes my day and the staff’s day.”

But it’s not a perfect system—Avendano says that last summer, Grubhub was taking almost 30% of their revenue from orders delivered through the app. “We were close to not even working with them anymore, because that’s a huge percentage,” he said. “That’s something that’s still very controversial here and at other businesses, because we understand it to a certain point, and I appreciate the drivers because they really make an effort, but that fee is really high.”

While they haven’t made any definitive decisions so far, Avendano says that Du’s has

has their own practical way of doing things, and there’s no right or wrong way. As long as people are aware of why there’s a fee, I think that’s important, so there’s not a hidden, little fee.”

Like Caputo, Avendano is frequently frustrated with some delivery apps’ automated systems, particularly DoorDash’s—which aim to streamline the delivery process, but end up creating unnecessary tension between restaurant and courier. “Sometimes, their system just doesn’t understand anything. It’s a robot.”

At the end of the day, both restaurants emphasized these delivery apps are a temporary stopgap, necessary for keeping the lights on and getting their food out to customers at a time when very few people want to dine in whether or not it’s allowed. Avendano understands that

considered raising some of their prices to offset steep delivery app service fees, and that he expects customers to be understanding. He’s also considered adding a flat fee to the delivery charge—something that other small restaurants in Portland have been doing—which he suspects might be less off-putting than raising prices across the board. “It’s been up in the air for us, but I think adding a little fee is better than raising the prices,” he said. “Each business

there are people who can’t come and pick food up from the restaurant but who still want Du’s, and that’s reason enough to keep using the delivery apps, frustrations notwithstanding.

Caputo feels similarly. “For the most part, we understand that these delivery services are an extension of our customers,” he said. “Many people are not able to leave their homes, and we want them to be able to order our food from whichever delivery app they use.”

PSU Vanguard • MARCH 9, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

THE MAURITANIAN IS CHILLING IT’S ALSO ANOTHER MOVIE THAT FEATURES BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH AS AN ASSHOLE WITH A CONSCIENCE

MORGAN TROPER During a recent NPR interview with Sam Sanders for the Da 5 Bloods press junket, director Spike Lee alluded to something I’d never really considered, and maybe that makes me culturally illiterate; Hollywood’s propensity for making “victorious” Vietnam War films is a type of mass wish fulfillment, rooted in America’s unconscious desire for a second shot at a war that was such an obvious, unambiguous blunder in real life.

In some ways, a similar principle applies to 9/11 cinema, if that can now be considered a proper genre of film. Whether or not you like films like Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center or Zero Dark Thirty—and, just in case the NSA is reading, I should emphasize that I genuinely do—you have to acknowledge that they are uncomfortably chauvinistic by contemporary standards. The 9/11 terrorist attacks were only a quasi-defeat, according to oughts Hollywood, like the Battle

of Hoth in Empire Strikes Back. But real life is nothing like Star Wars, or so they tell me.

In some ways, The Mauritanian feels like a movie that couldn’t—or at least, wouldn’t—have been made 15 or even 10 years ago. It’s a film based on the very real memoirs of Mohamedou Ould Salahi— who is played by Tahar Rahim in the film—a former mujahideen with tenuous links to al-Qaida, who was detained in Guantanamo Bay for 14 years without a formal charge brought against him. Salahi is one of the most famous Guantanamo detainees because he was verifiably tortured; authorities allegedly subjected him to sleep deprivation, extreme temperature oscillation, beatings and sexual abuse.

His Guantanamo Diary published in 2015 is a heartbreaking and infuriating account that doubles as a massive referendum on liberal complacency.

The Mauritanian depicts these scenes of torture sensitively but unflinchingly, and it is some of the most challenging cinema I’ve sat through in awhile.

Initially, Salahi maintains his relative innocence, giving his myopic interrogators a crash course on

PSU Vanguard • MARCH 9, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

the dynamics of the Afghan Civil War—“you’re not understanding me, same side, same side,” he insists. He’s eventually transferred to “special projects” for over two months, where authorities utilize enhanced interrogation tactics in an effort to elicit a voluntary confession.

The torture culminates with a mock execution, where Salahi is beaten by soldiers and held underwater until he loses consciousness. Shivering uncontrollably and barely alive, he finally confesses under duress to being one of al-Qaida’s lead recruiters as he meekly picks at his reward: a sandwich from McDonald’s.

From a literary standpoint, this is the “best” aspect of the film, even if I never want or need to see it again. These heart-stopping moments adapted from Salahi’s own account are buttressed by a frequently boring legal drama that seems way more fictionalized—Jodie Foster plays Nancy Hollander, a defense attorney from an Albuquerque-based firm who takes on the case pro bono because she’s committed to the principles of Habeas. Opposite Foster is the impossibly-named Benedict Cumberbatch, portraying military prosecutor Lt. Colonel Stuart Couch, a southeastern jingo with a real “let’s get that son of a bitch” attitude who slowly develops a conscience.

Hollander’s relationship with Salahi in The Mauritanian is comically stiff—even after she realizes she’s coming up against a massive conspiracy and that her client is likely being subjected to enhanced interrogation, she isn’t personally convinced of her client’s innocence. Hollander sticks with the trial because “everyone deserves counsel.” Salahi comments on this during one of his brief meetings with Hollander—“the case you say, but you’re not committed to me as a person,” he tells her. After reading Salahi’s brutal first-person

account of his torture at Guantanamo Bay, however, Hollander softens a bit—but that’s at the end of the movie, and their relationship never quite blossoms into anything particularly tender or convincing.

Even more awkward is The Mauritanian’s characterization of Lt. Colonel Couch, the marine prosecutor who ends up walking away from the case when he realizes his passions—Couch had a friend who died in one of the planes that hit the twin towers—are being exploited by his superiors, who are more interested in quick convictions than a proper and ethical dispersal of justice. The Mauritanian’s version of Couch evokes Cumberbatch’s portrayal of the slave owner William Ford in 12 Years a Slave, another mostly terrible person who was reframed by Hollywood as a misguided antagonist. Salahi’s release from Guantanamo—which was nonetheless incredibly protracted, and came a full six years after the courts initially ordered his release from detention—wasn’t impacted by Cumberbatch’s withdrawal from the case; he is an ancillary character that orbits a much grander and more important narrative, but the film is hellbent on centering him as a white knight. The film’s big climax sees Couch confront his CO in a parking garage, claiming that the confession he has access to is inadmissible because it was obtained under duress. “We took an oath to the constitution, and at the very least, we are miles away from that,” Couch says during his big mic-drop Oscarbaiting moment. Apparently he was fine with all the Guantanamo Bay stuff, but undocumented waterboarding and unprovoked, full-bore beatings are where he draws the line.

When The Mauritanian focuses on Salahi’s testimony, it is a chilling, effective piece of cinema. When the focus turns to Hollander and Couch—two characters with relatively little at stake—it becomes a tedious facsimile of every legal drama from the past 20 years. Still, The Mauritanian is a step in the right direction, and it’s refreshing to see Hollywood tackle one of the most shameful moments in modern American history with slightly more nuance than we’re used to. And no, Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay doesn’t count.

ARTS & CULTURE

13

PSU ISN’T LIVING UP TO ITS VALUES THE UNIVERSITY IS BUMBLING AND CONFUSED AT BEST, CYNICALLY HYPOCRITICAL AT WORST SAM GARCIA NICK GATLIN Portland State prides itself on its values, its mission and its position in the community. These values include “excellence and innovation,” “integrity” and “inclusion and equity.”

Recently, President Stephen Percy named three new priorities for the university: “centering the school’s effort to improve racial justice and equity to combat structural racism, focusing on student success to improve retention and graduation rates and engaging with the community to strengthen Portland as a whole.” The next step is to answer the question: is PSU living up to those values?

Let’s look at PSU’s Black Studies department. The administration has been criticized for barely funding the department; Dr. Ethan Johnson, chair of the department, said in an interview it has “some non-tenure track faculty and some adjunct faculty, but I would say we’re not really a department... the university knows that Black students are not graduating... they have known this for a long time and...I would say it’s intentional. Inaction as an action is just as intentional.” To PSU’s credit, the Black Studies department will increase its full-time faculty to four professors after losing two on its 50th anniversary. “To me it’s not some huge gain—it’s really getting us back to where we were 10 years ago, because we’ve been losing faculty,” Johnson said. This isn’t PSU fully embodying its values; rather, it feels like they’re scrambling to catch the Black Studies department up to standards after the explosion of racial justice protests last summer.

Speaking of racial justice, let’s look at PSU’s campus public safety officers. The administration promised in August that CPSO would disarm in the fall of 2020, after years of activism by students and after Jason Washington was shot and killed by campus police in 2018. PSU said CPSO would have all firearmfree patrols “before or during the month of October,” as part of a plan to “dismantle systemic racism.”

In November 2020, the university announced campus police will not disarm until the “end of the academic year,” citing “delays in negotiating a new operating agreement with the Portland Police Bureau and rewriting 500 pages in policies and procedures.” If PSU were truly acting in good faith to disarm campus police, why would they not be up-front about these challenges in August instead of setting a deadline they knew they couldn’t meet? And if they didn’t know what the challenges were, why wouldn’t they find out before announcing a date for disarmament?

Of course, any university is ultimately defined by its faculty.

Let’s look at one of PSU’s most infamous professorial scandals, “Sokal Squared.” PSU philosophy professor Peter Boghossian,

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OPINION

along with Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, published 20 hoax papers to academic journals in the fields of gender studies, race studies and similar fields in 2018. According to an article the three wrote in Areo, they published fake articles in order to “expose the reality of grievance studies, which is corrupting academic research.”

Boghossian was later subjected to institutional review, after it was found that he had violated PSU’s ethics guidelines by participating in the hoax. He also came under review on the charge of falsifying data, and the review board found that the hoax met the criteria for “human-subjects research;” Boghossian hadn’t cleared that with the review board, violating university policy.

In an open letter published in Portland State Vanguard, nearly a dozen professors denounced the hoax, noting that the articles “actually involved completely falsified data, a thing that we ought to call by its name: fraud.” They wrote that “[the articles] are designed not to critique, educate or inspire change in flawed systems, but rather to humiliate entire fields while the authors gin up publicity for themselves without having made any scholarly contributions whatsoever.”

Boghossian and his allies did not submit fake articles to journals of biology, history or psychology, for instance—even though the field of psychology is going through a major replicability crisis. Without a control group, any findings they gathered from their research are bunk; in attempting to prove that the field of “grievance studies” was systemically unscientific, they abandoned the scientific method altogether in favor of some cheap publicity.

As a student, if I were to engage in academic misconduct at this scale, I would face serious sanctions, up to suspension or expulsion from the university. Boghossian is still a full-time faculty member in the philosophy department. It is interesting, to say the least, that I would likely face a harsher punishment for academic misconduct than a professor knowingly perpetrating a fraud.

Finally, we can’t forget one of PSU’s most well-known professors, Dr. Bruce Gilley. Gilley is a tenured professor of political science at PSU. He is perhaps most famous for his article in Third World Quarterly, “The Case for Colonialism.” In it, he argues colonialism by Western powers was beneficial, and Western countries should “recolonize some regions” or “build new Western colonies from scratch.”

There is not enough space on this page, nor enough ink that could be spilled, to detail the full depths of this argument’s defects. Instead, it is useful to point out the issues that directly relate to this article’s focus—PSU’s values of academic integrity.

Gilley’s case rests on a shaky foundation of misreadings of the scholarship on colonialism, at times outright misrepresenting and omitting key facts. For instance, Gilley praises colonialism through comparison with “[c]ountries that did not have a significant colonial history” such as Haiti, Libya and Guatemala.

All of these countries had a significant colonial history: Haiti was famously a French colony until 1804, Libya was colonized by the Ottomans and then by Italy under Mussolini and Guatemala was colonized by Spain until 1821. This is all without mentioning non-Western independent nations like Japan, which seem to have turned out just fine. Finding these facts took no more than five minutes and a simple Google search; this leads me to believe that Gilley is either a lazy scholar or a dishonest one.

Gilley has a YouTube channel as well, where he posts videos such as “Was It Good Fortune to be Enslaved by the British Empire?” where he states Africans enslaved by the British would have had a “short and brutal life in Stone Age African society.”

African societies in the precolonial period had a long history of state institutions, societies such as the Yoruba had standardized currencies and sophisticated savings and loan systems and, oh, the Stone Age ended in Africa about 4,000 years ago.

Whether or not Gilley has personal prejudice against Africans, the erasure of African history to suit colonial narratives has a storied lineage in the history of cultural extermination.

In November 2019, Gilley was invited to speak at the German Bundestag by Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) MPs Markus Frohnmaier and Petr Bystron. Frohnmaier associates with the far-right, Neo-Nazi allied fringes of AfD, which is already a right-wing nationalist party; in his speech, he prefaced his remarks by saying, “I am not a historian, much less a historian of colonialism.” He should have stopped there.

This is not merely a difference of opinion, or a matter of “academic freedom.” Academic freedom does not mean the freedom to lie, to misrepresent facts or to perpetrate fraud. Does a professor speaking to a far-right audience to defend colonialism, or lying about “Stone Age Africa” in a YouTube video, “improve racial justice and equity?” Does a professor falsifying data to score political points promote “integrity?” How, exactly, does underfunding the Black Studies department for decades “[focus] on student success to improve retention and graduation rates?” What about slow-walking CPSO disarmament after students forced PSU’s hand? Does that “engag[e] with the community to strengthen Portland as a whole?” PSU has a choice: it can either live up to their values, or stop pretending to have ever had them at all.

PSU Vanguard • MARCH 9, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

HAZELNUT GROVE SHOULD BE CELEBRATED, NOT DESTROYED PORTLAND OR, HAZELNUT GROVE VILLAGE ON SUNDAY MARCH 7, 2021. SOFIE BRANDT/PSU VANGUARD MELODY FIELD Hazelnut Grove, a self-governed tiny home village located in North Portland with about 15 formerly houseless residents, is under threat of being torn down, dispersing the people who live there.

Although Portland promises to keep residents together, it only offered them about half of the spots in the new tiny house village in the St. Johns neighborhood— which is only enough spaces for about two-thirds of the Hazelnut Groves residents. This leaves the residents who do not choose to move there no choice but to be thrown back into the temporary sheltering system, after living in stable conditions for years.

Shutting off services and tearing down Hazelnut Grove, without providing the residents a new area to house in and govern themselves, shows Mayor Ted Wheeler’s lack of empathy for the houseless community and individuals who are in alternative housing.

This proves to be an ongoing pattern, as Wheeler continues to disperse houseless communities throughout the city—mostly in wealthier neighborhoods such as the Laurelhurst Park neighborhood, where he initiated houseless camp sweeps in November, according to Street Roots.

Although many houseless people are offered alternative shelter during camp sweeps, they are put at a higher risk for contracting COVID-19 by being forced back into the shelter system or onto the streets; also, some houseless individuals cannot be a part of the shelter system due to drug addiction, mental problems or simply because they choose not to be a part of it.

This is the same situation residents of Hazelnut Grove are now facing. During these unprecedented times, it is cruel for Portland to choose the fate of this community and its residents.

Additionally, in a recent meeting, Wheeler and Portland City Commissioner Dan Ryan, who oversees the Joint Office of Homeless Service, seemed to have unclear communication for their plan regarding when they would stop paying for Hazelnut Grove’s regular monthly services. This lack of communication shows what little care they actually have for the residents of this village. It also reveals their bigger focus, which is to answer the complaints of many of their neighbors nearby, and finally remove the alternative housing village.

Even though Hazelnut Grove has been deemed a safety hazard due to risk of landslides, brush fires

PSU Vanguard • MARCH 9, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

and more, Portland should have worked more with its residents to find them another space to house, rather than giving them the option to either live without essential services or be forced to move somewhere else—both of which do not offer them a way to house together and govern themselves. The residents feel their dignity and rights have been violated through the inhumane treatment of what’s at stake for them. One month’s notice for their garbage and portable toilet services to be shut off and their homes to be torn down is not enough time for them to find reliable housing.

Hazelnut Grove should be recognized for all it’s done for houseless individuals and the houseless community. Hazelnut Grove has proven to be a successful bridge to permanent housing. According to Portland Mercury, “At least 40 people have moved out of Hazelnut Grove and into permanent housing since 2015.” Its residents, such as Barbara Weber, are also advocates for houseless hygiene: “She [Weber] spends most of her time advocating for homeless hygiene access and running Ground Score, a trash removal and recycling nonprofit she co-founded in 2019.” The residents work together to advocate for themselves and other poor people, and have even gotten over 2,000 signatures petitioning against the removal of Hazelnut Grove.

Wheeler and Commissioner Ryan should recognize Hazelnut Grove as a starting point in creating alternative housing for houseless people. Disbanding houseless camps and removing Hazelnut Grove is harmful to the houseless community and to Portland, because it puts people back into the temporary sheltering system. Displacing them isolates them from their communities, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, it puts their health at risk. Many houseless people no longer trust the city because of the way they are treated; As Weber explained to Portland Mercury, “Unless you’ve been homeless, I don’t think you understand how degrading it feels to be forced to live under someone else’s rules, just because you are poor.”

Until Portland starts to listen to the people who are truly impacted by housing insecurity, villages such as Hazelnut Grove and houseless camp communities will continue to choose to govern themselves and stay away from city-run housing and temporary shelter systems.

PORTLAND OR, DAN SITS OUTSIDE THE LIBRARY AT HAZELNUT GROVE VILLAGE ON SUNDAY MARCH 7, 2021.

SOFIE BRANDT/PSU VANGUARD PORTLAND OR, JESSE SADLER OUTSIDE OF THE FIRST TINY HOUSE HE BUILT AT HAZELNUT GROVE VILLAGE ON SUNDAY MARCH 7, 2021. SOFIE BRANDT/PSU VANGUARD

OPINION

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VIRTUAL

EVENTS CALENDAR FREE FLU SHOTS AND COVID TESTING

TUE MAR

PCC Cascade Campus 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

Free Ongoing through March 31 Uninsured and BIPOC folks are prioritized for free flu shots and COVID-19 testing. You have to call in advance to schedule. Walking, driving and biking are all permitted.

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ISHIMOTO YASUHIRO

THU MAR

Portland Japanese Garden 9 a.m.–3 p.m.

Included with general admission pricing Thursday–Monday; ongoing through April 11 In honor of his 100th birthday, the Portland Japanese Garden will be offering a limited exhibit showcasing famed Japanese-American photographer Ishimoto Yasuhiro’s work.

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THE 31st ANNUAL CASCADE DEATH OF NINTENDO Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium FESTIVAL OF AFRICAN 12 midnight $9 FILMS Ongoing through March 15 Online event, via PCC Different showings; free Ongoing through March 10 The Annual Cascade Festival of African Films— which, naturally, will be migrating entirely to the internet this year—features African films by African filmmakers. Among the films showcased this year are Sam Soko’s Softie and You Will Die at Twenty, Sudan’s first Oscar nomination.

“Mimaw and her friends Paolo, Kachi and Gilligan go on a journey of self-discovery together as they play games and wrestle with new dilemmas – puppy love, circumcision, and other horror stories. Set in ’90s Manila, Philippines, the story takes us into the colorful pop-culture world of these four 13-year old friends, back in the days when video games were still a novelty.”

JORYU HANGA KYOKAI, 1956–65

S.A.M.P.L.E. LAPTOP ENSEMBLE

Portland Art Museum 10 a.m.–5 p.m. $20 Thursday–Sunday; ongoing through April 11 The Portland Art Museum presents an exhibit on Japan’s famous printmaking society, Joryū Hanga Kyōkai—or the Women’s Print Association—with a series of etchings and lithographs from 1956–65.

Portland State 12 noon Free Thursday–Sunday; ongoing through April 11 “Portland State University’s Sonic Arts and Music Production’s Laptop Ensemble will be streaming several new compositions created in collaboration with PSU’s School of Film production students. In addition, the Advanced Laptop Ensemble will be presenting a new soundtrack to the Western Phytography, a film created

by Interbay Cinema Society and Northwest Film Forum.

The Laptop Ensemble is an ensemble of humans, laptops, controllers, and speakers. Ensemble members both compose and perform in the ensemble, exploring computer-mediated instrument design, sound synthesis, programming, and live interactive performance.”

CARCHELLA PDX

SAT MAR

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EVENTS

Oaks Park 6 p.m. $59 per vehicle

“The best of the local music scene is showcased at this weekly live concert series enjoyed from the safety of your own vehicle.

The show starts off with acoustic music, interviews, and more, then the drive-in gets rocking with a performance by a special headliner band!”

PSU Vanguard • MARCH 9, 2021 • psuvanguard.com